There has been discussion about college football splitting away from the NCAA for years.

A lot of that discussion has come over the course of the last decade, specifically with the advent of the College Football Playoff and NIL. The NCAA has been slow-moving on these and nearly anything progressive.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the 11 presidents that make up the committee met on Monday via Zoom to discuss what branching out from the NCAA might look like.

Multiple sources told Thamel that in this situation, major college football would be governed by the CFP. They also mentioned that these talks are in “such early stages that it could be considered the first steps of a complicated process that would resemble a marathon.”

While this is far from a finished story, it’s incredibly significant that the discussions have begun.